Twitter Comes to the Rescue in India During Worst Flood in 100 Yrs

A simple hashtag is uniting thousands of people in a flooded city while showcasing humanity at its best.

This week saw the heaviest monsoons in a century hit Chennai, a city of four million in southeastern India. The rising rainwater has closed highways, railroads, and airports and displaced entire neighborhoods.

Thousands of residents began offering help via Twitter using #ChennaiRainsHelp to list open homes for people who’ve been flooded out of their own.

If anyone is looking for emergency shelter they can look through the tweets on #ChennaiRainsHelp and find those set up at mosques, churches, temples and even movie theaters and malls. It’s also helped locate volunteers to distribute food and other supplies.

People stranded by floodwaters are using the hashtag to let searchers know where they are.

Still others have used it to tag photos and video of heroic rescues or of people simply helping each other during the disaster.